Jill Greenberg Admits In Her Website, Manipulator.com, To Staging Ugly McCain Photoshoot
15 September 2008, 3:30 PM. By Carlos Posas
Photographer Jill Greenberg, of Dexter and Animal Planet ad fame, admitted on her blog that she tried to make McCain look horrible in a recent photo shoot. She was hired by the Atlantic Monthly to shoot McCain for the October cover, but used part of her time at the photo shoot to stage him looking like a villain,
“I left his eyes red and his skin looking bad…He had no idea he was being lit from below.”
Atlantic Monthly didn’t notice how odd some of the resultant shots were, and chose a relatively normal picture to use for their cover. Understandably, once Greenberg blogged about her trick, Atlantic Monthly and every single Republican on the planet freaked out, denouncing Greenberg as childish and devious. Jeff Goldberg, staff writer for the Atlantic wrote on his blog that Greenberg “disgraced her profession.”
Greenberg’s response to the criticism can be paraphrased as: “Bring it.”
Pics of McCain as super-villain, after the jump:
Says Greenberg:
“I am a pretty hard core Democrat. Some of my artwork has been pretty anti-Bush, so maybe it was somewhat irresponsible for them [The Atlantic] to hire me.”
One of her more famous political pieces was an anti-bush series, “End Times” where she took candy away from children to make them cry, and then photographed them.
“It reminded me of helplessness and anger I feel about our current political and social situation…Maybe getting kids to cry isn’t the nicest thing to do, but I’m not causing anyone permanent psychological damage.”
Which leads to the question of what it would have looked like if she’d taken a lollipop from McCain… On the serious side, we think it’s pretty damn unprofessional to use a commercial photo shoot as a way to express your politics. Greenberg made her political beliefs abundantly clear when she described her End Times series, writing;
“The rise of the Christian right as a political force in this country has made the situation dire. The most dangerous fundamentalists aren’t just waging war in Iraq…it’s as if they believe the apocalyptic End Time is near, therefore protecting the earth and the future of our children is futile.”
Freedom to express yourself is a huge part of what makes art meaningful, but if you’re working commercially, it’s clear what the expectations are. It could be argued that the magazine should have done a better job of checking Greenberg’s credentials, but Atlantic editor, James Bennett, makes the point that;
The magazine’s editors don’t “vet our photographers for their politics” but look at their “professional track record.”
On her website, manipulator.com, Greenberg has a whole series of doctored photos of McCain.
McCain as a shark. This could totally be spun in a positive light, like, “McCain: Defending America’s Coasts Since 1936″ or, “McCain: Russians Wanna Step Now, Bitches?”
Cindy is not amused.
Neither is his first wife…
What do you think: Do politics have a place in commercial art? Did Greenberg fuck up or is she within her rights as an artist, no matter the venue?
Jill Greenberg Admits To Bad Photography For John McCain [Timesoftheinternet]
How Jill Greenberg Really Feels About John McCain [PDN]
About that McCain Photo [Atlantic]
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She was within her rights to use her work as she wished. It’s funny to see people get bent out of shape over the truth.
Sure, she’s within her rights, but this totally made her look like an unprofessional, immature brat.
sure she’s within her rights: and acting like a 5 year old.
bitch please, grow up.
@Mimi: Oh no! You’ve internalized my sexism!
She is in her right, but She is a Brat, And A IDIOT.Screw her. She’s Canadian anyways, she should butt out.
way to treat a war hero. bitch!
I don’t get it–he looks exactly like the devil he is—what exactly did she do to distort that?
Patrick, she distorted your mind. This is really immature, unless of course she has distorted the liberals images in her portfolio. The it’s equal opportunity ignorance on her part.
it’s funny how republicans grab onto every ridiculous, non-issue, out-of-context distortion the media presents and don’t let go. It’s you people that are immature brats… lipstick anyone?
@ spanexican
We’re not all Republicans. Far from it. I just think it’s silly that she was hired to do a job and then giggled all over her website about how she threw her credibility out the window.
I thought the entire lipstick debacle was stupid, but people like Greenberg, regardless of her intent, make liberals look pathetic.
McCain already looks old enough without her making him look even worse. And on another topic, the Atlantic must feel pretty dumb now for not bothering to look at her past, politically-slanted work.
i hope that jill greenberg will pay for what she did by having bad karma for the rest of her life, i wish her bad things.
I dont find this really offensive. The man is a sleaze. Both captions in those last two photos are truth. What seems to bother everyone is when he is called out for being a sleaze. I find it despicable that he can smile for the cameras, smile for the people of the united states, smile and speak words like he is a good man when he is anything but. Being a war hero is not an excuse to be a degenerate, womanizing, selfish prick.
His ugly photos just showcase whats inside him.
“Being a war hero is not an excuse to be a degenerate, womanizing, selfish prick. ”
QFT
Sigh. Her behavior was utterly unprofessional, and frankly, worthy of Republicans. Sadly, playing dirty doesn’t beat them at their own game.
And her lollipop-stealing “art” photos are disturbing as well. She has an ethics problem.
All these “political activists” are one trick ponies, make the big bad rich white republicans into nazis/fascists/devils, throw blood into the photo for extra “hate flare”
Isnt it funny how the liberal activists never get what they want?
Do you ever think this is why you guys keep losing elections, all you are doing is alienating millions of voters with your tactics, it makes you look like militant extremists.
This girl is just wrong… sarcastically funny, but still woring.
Doing photoshop crops and getting creative with the collages can be fun and it makes you laugh, because ITS FAKE! THAT’S THE WHOLE POINT AND THAT’S WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH… but using with her same excuse and argument, it would be OK for a software developer to do all sorts of nasty stuff while working for the defense… or for a doctor not to close all stitches in a woman after a c-section because of her religion… please say “I’m sorry” and stay silent for a while.
great picture for the Atlantic cover, high key lighting, no shadowing - Ms Greenberg is so talented, McCain’s picture looks better than he does - What are the Republicans trying to do? Start a war with no truth behind it? Or are they just pissed somebody finally beat them at their own dirty tricks? Fox News showed McCain asleep in the Senate - that was far more shocking -
Atlantic Monthly got what it deserved for not vetting Greenberg thoroughly. She went a bit too far on her website because she is assuming we don’t already know some of these things about Mr. McCain. I am not so certain he is evil, but he is certainly no saint. He is right now saying the same things Herbert Hoover said during his campaign. If she loses any jobs over this it is the loss of the people who don’t hire her. She at least has an imagination. As a photographer and digital manipulator myself, I say she is also very talented. However, she should not use a sledgehammer when a tack hammer will suffice.
McCain is Dorian Gray and Jill Greenberg is the vehicle that shows his true nature.
Her website is actually called manipulator.com? I would have taken that as a sign.
Annie Lebowitz had two controversial pictures recently. (The “King-Kong” one and the Miley Cyrus one.) That controversy only caused more people to talk. So this round of controversial pictures comes as no surprise to me.
She’s within her rights, and the Atlantic, and other professional media outlets, are in their rights to never hire her again.
We all have the right to act any way we want and society has the right to accept us, reject us, reward us, or in some cases confine us. That’s called freedom. And with freedom comes responsibility.
ROFL!
McCain fought for all of us to have the freedom that we have.We should show some respect. Greenbergs pictures are a disgrace, I hope she gets sued for her actions and does not get to profit from this and she ends up waiting tables in a diner for $3.00 an hour.
Lee? What are you talking about? McCain fought for all of us? Is McCain so old that he is now one of the forefathers of our nation? LMAO! McCain did not fight for anyone! McCain let us all down by allowing the PATRIOT ACT to be enacted. That is something he should have fought against and not trying to drop bombs on innocent women and children from an airplane in Vietnam. McCain was not even a great pilot, he was shot down and has about 20 hours of war experience. McCain is incompetent and he knows nothing about economics or foreign affairs. McCain is more dangerous than George W. Bush to make matters even worse, is McCain has a lower IQ than lil George. Look at the mess lil Georgie made! We nearly hit a depression just before his last few months left in office and we are still not out of the woods yet. What the hell do you think McCain can do? He has no clue. The only think McCain knows is war and he wants to badly invade Iran. We can not afford another stupid president. We need real change and not some old fart who has been in public office for the past 26 years and has learned nothing in the process. Ask McCain something about economics or foriegn policy and he will begin talking about who he knows, name dropping. He will never talk about what he knows because he does not know shit.
Thanks to those photos by Jill Greenberg, I was able to put together a really great video about the lying DEMON known as John McCain
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_1sVz1RkcA
Enjoy.